I was born in the summer, to a mother who is an artist and a father in the American Army. We moved often; until I graduated from college, I never called anywhere home for more than three consecutive years. We lived in the states of Maryland (twice), California, Virginia (three times) and Rhode Island. We were stationed in Germany and Belgium (twice), and that’s all before I turned 21!
I graduated from SHAPE High School in Belgium. SHAPE is an acronym for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, which is a lot of words to say “multinational.” I attended Mary Washington College in Virginia. MWC has since decided it is a university and is now called UMW, probably because MWU sounds silly. I double-majored in Physics and Philosophy. I was young and honestly thought if I could master both of those subjects, I would understand everything. Like I said, I was young and a teeny bit arrogant. I met my husband in a physics class and we began dating in our Junior year. That was in the last millennium. So, yes, I’m Gen X (apologies for any damages my generation caused – most of us really did try and do the right thing.).
I worked twenty-four years as a software engineer. My early career was… how do I say this nicely? Way back then, to be young woman in a male-dominated industry was challenging. Shit, it still was, albeit to a lesser degree, when I retired a couple of years ago to become an author instead. I started my software career just prior to the dot.com disaster, held onto my job during the 2008 housing crisis, was spared furlough during the Covid pandemic, and worked my ass off to be debt-free because Gen X is financially cursed.
My husband and I lived in Austin, Texas for 15 years. When we moved there, we didn’t know anyone in the city, had no jobs lined up, no housing arranged beyond a two-week extended stay reservation. What I remember most was that one of the few items we could fit in our car for the drive was a frying pan Why a frying pan? Literally no idea. I cried when we finally got there but eventually came to feel affectionate towards the city. The first few years were lovely. The city still had the smalltown feel and charm on display in the movie Dazed and Confused. We went to the O’Henry Pun Off, attended Master Pancake Theater in the original Drafthouse location, spent sleepless nights in a haunted room in the Driskill Hotel, went to the annual Weiner Dog Race, and did a bunch of other iconic Austin things in the first few years. I never did make it out to Chicken Shit Bingo because the influx of Californians overwhelmed the traffic infrastructure & made everywhere that was “keeping Austin weird” too crowded to be any fun.
We moved back to my husband’s hometown in Virginia when the pandemic made both of our jobs remote. This still comes as a surprise to us – we thought we were moving to St. Louis! Then we saw a quirky Midcentury Modern home for sale in Newport News (yep, the actual name!) and it just felt right. I wanted a house that was at least 100 years old. As I write this, the house is a youthful 85. It took a bit of work to get a WiFi signal everywhere because the walls are made of legit plaster, not drywall. The older houses just down the road from us have walls made of wire-reinforced-plaster-mixed-with-horse-hair. They really struggle with WiFi!
What else? I love dogs, spicey food, autumn, true crime podcasts, long naps, reading, attending live AEW shows and laughing so hard I nearly pee myself.
Erzsebet Carmean 